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In September, I got married. and it was the most incredible day ever. I have a lot to say about it but I’m waiting until I have one more piece… our wedding video. As a blogger and someone interested in recording our lives in some digital form, a journal of sorts – this blog… {possibly a new domain / name some day as I transition into being on a team}… I’m basically bursting @ the seams to blog about all the details and share it in the webspace for friends & family to experience. Some things just are worth the wait, you know? xx

In the meantime, i have a lot on my mind. And it basically has to do with what our time here on earth is made of. Deep, I know, but get to it… and this is my blog. A bit before we went to Hawaii (next post!), I’d been doing a lot of soul-searching. Life is so incredibly short… what do I want to make up my time while I’m here?

My now husband (eek!), showed me this video when we were lounging on Maui and I think the world needs to watch it, if they haven’t already. And if you have? Watch it again. And make your loved ones watch it. Put your life into perspective and consider with what you’re spending your 24 hours each day doing.

Um, whoa. I had a small internal panic attack when I watched that. Why didn’t someone show me that in high school? Freshman year?… When we were worried about the most trivial of things, stressed-out and drama-filled with events like Prom (who let me spend so much money on those high school formals?!… easily $5K… cringe).

As an adult, I’m trying to spend a bit of time each day reading sites like Quora or watching TED videos. To keep my brain fresh, keep it thinking. A few days ago, I read a question posted on Quora titled, “How can I thoroughly screw up my life.” Now, that’s a pretty deep inquiry. The answer, linked below, by Raqhav Upmanyu has many thoughts I align with. Especially now, as I’m in this phase of contemplation; wanting to shape my life in a way that brings fulfillment / happiness / experiences.

And I know this is entirely an opinion, so take everything he says with a grain of salt or whatever. But it’s a perspective I somewhat align with. It makes me think hard about what I want to make of my time left. He starts out saying the biggest mistake you can make is becoming a statistic and “settling for being a useless part of the all-singing, all-dancing crap of the world.” Me? I can’t live like that. I can’t be put through the motions and do a 9 to 5 in a cubicle and come out on the other end tired, stressed, lacking sleep, motivation and drive. That is exactly what I would turn into. And it’s not just in the business realm. I found myself watching the Oscars last night. At the end of it, I thought, ‘I just wasted 3 hours on something I don’t have any interest whatsoever in. I hadn’t seen a single movie that was nominated!? Emily, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!” I could have been designing cards for my etsy business, reading the book I can’t seem to get through, laughing & connecting with my beautiful mama, sorting through yet another bin of crap I’ve saved over the years with some thought of needing it in a future time (more on that purging process later).

All in all, I want to get down on paper that today is February 29, 2016, Leap Day, an extra day for free just cause. I’m committing to making whatever mindset I’m chasing a reality. I want to make this life fulfilling and get everything I can out of it. I want to do things I enjoy doing, that bring me happiness and flex my creative muscles. I want to travel as much as possible. I want to experience everything. I want to take chances. I want to love crazily. I don’t want to be stressed. I don’t want to be burnt out. I want to be fresh + real + alive. I want to laugh + be optimistic + positive for 95% of my life. And yes, this a ridiculously lofty, insane goal but why can’t I try to shoot for it? It’s worth it to me to try.

Please don’t take this post as me pointing fingers. This is my online space to speak what’s on my mind; this is what I want to capture. And have my kids read someday. Hopefully they’ll think their mother was the baddest woman that ever lived who strived to make the most of her existence.

If I could pick something, anything, that describes how I’m feeling currently. It would be this canvas bag from @sugarboodesigns

this ones for the books. we woke at 5:30am to hike towards Vancouver Convention Center where it’s Lululemon SeaWheeze Ground Zero. To stretch, drop our gear bag and get ready for the run. The weather was chilly, 60 some degrees and slightly drizzling. We were playing the game of what do we wear? What layers are needed? Knowing full well 1 mile in, we won’t want extra clothing and won’t stop sweating.
Keep in mind, neither of us trained for this one as a result of planning World’s Best Wedding. A week ago I got turf toe in a yoga class. Brett’s shoulders have been hurting. His hamstring gets tight. Basically, we are a pair of hot messes and just wanted to finish the damn thing without having to drop out. Needless to say, we both finished. We both have smiles on our faces. We both are limping around the city, clearly struggling. Don’t ask how many crosswalks we didn’t “risk it for a biscuit” because the fasterst we could go was a slow walk. 😂 (hint: more than 20)

Some key highlights from the run- on one stretch of the race, across a high bridge over the city, there were a ton of spin bikes in a row with people spinning and cheering us on as we ran past. So much energy! I half wanted to join them! I cannot find a picture of it anywhere. Pretend you took an entire spin class onto a high rise bridge and lined up 20-40 bikes, everyone cycling and cheering with music pumping as we ran past. You get the idea. Excellent!

The race route was great this year, the weather was perfect, the solitude on the SeaWall was glorious. Running for miles along the SeaWall in a fog with a light drizzle, makes me feels as if I’m on the wharfs in some coastal city out east. (Never been, next trip?) 🙂

All around a great race. We died, but it was still great!
After we met at the Digital Orca, we grabbed runner’s brunch (soy yogurt, a waffle with magical jam, cherries, grapes, and a baby quiche)

We applied a layer of Saje Peppermint Halo on every inch of the back of our legs. He gave me a stretch on the ol’ calves. We died, came back to life, and allowed a restart of about ten minutes and then laced up to head out.

As we sloth-walked towards home. We wanted a shower and we were hungry for a real meal. Our first stop was JJ Brew, they gave free drink tickets to the SeaWheeze runners. We both got a cup of java and split a chocolate chip cookie. It was nice to duck out of the chill for a moment, to regroup and try to find wifi.

Every little boutique is adorable, the fonts and marketing so well done. Why don’t we have nearly the amount of awesome hidden gems in Minneapolis!? A few blocks further we pass Nectar Juicery. I’m a sucker for a good juice. Fruit, soy, greens, iced, I don’t care. Me love juice. We settled, after much discussion on a bottle of their Sacred. It was refreshing, I’m super excited to make my own juice and use the glass bottle it came it. (3 stars, they were sold out of what we wanted, and this was just so-so).

Down the way is a little spot called, Old Faithful Shop. A cute little boutique with hand picked curiosities. Their shop mascot is a french bulldog, named Pierre, whose outpost is a small doghouse inside one of their bookshelf tables.

And then, B realllllllllly wanted a sandwich. Like now. Well, like yesterday. He loves a well-made sandwich. Love that about him. We had seen a few spots when exploring, and noted to visit later on. Meat & Bread was open for business and busy! A very good sign. (5 stars)

This is his domain, so I let him order. He settled on the Porchetta and the Daily Special. The bread was sliced in front of us. Small wood boards held the sandwiches on top of a slice of parchment paper, with little mountains of condiments. We got ours to-go.

We walked to the grocer next door and loaded up on liquids before heading home.

We FaceTimed with our other traveler partners, my parents. We showered and put on compression socks (glorious!). And we ate our sandwiches in the little quaint apartment we’re calling home this weekend.

Explored their balcony in the day light.

A slow rise to the 12th-floor gave us a chance to relax, recoup and enjoy the beautiful view.

those white tent tops is where the Vancouver Convention Center is located!

We took a nap and around evening time, headed to the Sunset Festival in Stanley Park. A chance for all the runners to get together, drink some beer, listen to awesome music, test out the trapeze, and generally have a very chill, beautiful evening. I sported the Lululemon Vinyasa Scarf as there are clearly a million ways to get comfortable in it. (see below) 😀

Craving something sweet, we waited in line FOREVER, for Archimallows – artisinal, fire-torched marshmallows (3 stars), not worth the wait but we did it anyway! Here is a pano of the view before me (the stage, the sea, the trapeze, the mallow tent, and the line (can you spot B?)

As the sun went down, the lights came out, there is an awesome drone that shot footage during the event – the video can be seen here – a quick view of everything that went on this amazing weekend!

We beat the rush and left a bit earlier during the last set. The shuttle took us back to Ground Zero and we walked home. On the way, we grabbed dinner from Tacofino – probably the best place I’ve had a burrito, EVER. B ordered the Spicy Chicken and I ordered the Vegetarian. Mine was ON POINT! (5 stars)

During our trip, we tried to find something to spend our “When In Rome…” fund on, a ‘change and small bill’ jar that we save up in and then splurge on something during our adventures. We decided to book a 1am float at Float House – the late night ones are 2.5 hours… we were excited beyond belief.

The whole interior vibe is very calming. Blue and purple neon lights throughout. There are stacks of salt bags in the hallway that lines the chamber rooms. We each had a room with a shower and our deprivation tank inside, a fluffy white towel, robe, and organic body soap and shampoo for afterwards. They provided ear plugs (both foam and wax!).

After we were both introduced to our chambers, which each held about 850lb. of Epson salt, we said adios and rinsed before entering our tanks. It’s a sort of indescribable experience. I spent about 3 minutes floating on top of the water, getting calm and slowing my breathing… my head tilted back and held in place by the salt water (so dense, you float effortlessly on the surface) – it’s hard to know where the water begins and wear the surface is.

I swear, three minutes go by and the next thing I know, someone is knocking hard on my tank. I slowly open my eyes in the pitch dark chamber and immediately think the Float House concierge is going to open my tank door while I’m on full-nudity display. Turns out in was B. He cracked the door open, I couldn’t hear anything as I had my wax ear plugs in and my eyes tried to adjust in the darkness with this new neon blue light shining in. His voice reminded me of Charle Brown’s teacher, as I couldn’t understand any words with plugged ears.

Apparently I had slept through TWO 6-minute song cycles meant to wake you up. I slept through the computer voice saying, “Your float is now completed, please exit the tank.” The employee asked B, now 30 minutes out of the tank, to check on me and wake me up.

Three hours went by in what seemed like minutes, and yet I was so unbelievably relaxed, I felt like I was floating on earth. Highly recommend this experience!

Needless to say, we walked out of that Float House around 4:15am and felt like we could conquer the world. Instead, we crashed and had the best sleep of our lives.